Josh Setterfield On The Heavy Sound Of His New EP ‘FALL’: 'I Like To Push Boundaries'

Josh Setterfield’s new EP, FALL, begins with the metalcore-influenced single Burning Gas, a song the Brisbane musician describes as “probably the heaviest country song from an Australian artist.”

The track might be an outlier in the Australian country scene, but the genre mash-up is not a huge surprise given Setterfield’s background.

The heavily tattooed vocalist and guitarist grew up in the small town of Wangi Wangi, 30 kilometres south of Newcastle. He and his family moved to Brisbane when Setterfield was 12, and that’s where he’s based today.

Before going solo, Setterfield played in various local punk and screamo bands, the most notable being the pop-punk quintet Call The Shots, whose influences included Yellowcard and All Time Low. He made the switch to country ahead of his first solo EP, Live It Up, released in 2016.

Setterfield’s breakout solo release was the 2021 single Right About Now, a mid-tempo country pop song. Right About Now featured alongside a handful of Setterfield’s other best-performing singles, such as Blow Our Cover and Better Off, on last year’s RISE EP.

The new EP, FALL, is a companion to that earlier release. “I’ve wanted to do this back-to-back thing for a little while,” Setterfield tells Countrytown. “And it’s kind of just in the era of… albums are great, but people’s attention spans are so short. So, we kind of did an album but split it across two.”

While Burning Gas taps into Setterfield’s love of bands like Parkway Drive, Thy Art Is Murder and Wage War, he channels a stadium rock influence on the latest FALL single, What We Had (When We Had It).

“There is a couple of 80s synths in the background that put a wash over the song,” Setterfield says. “It was never really the intention to come in and do something crazy like that. I just like to see where songs take me, and if the vibe fits, then I’m more than down for it.”

Setterfield grew up in the 1990s, and nostalgia for the era exerted a major influence on his songwriting and personal life. “That’s kind of my thing – wishing I could have that back,” he says. He’s even gone so far as to build an arcade in his house that’s full of 90s gaming consoles.

“I spoke to my mum about it and was just like, ‘Was the 90s really that different? Or was it just because I had a nostalgic childhood?’” Setterfield says of his obsession. “And she was like, ‘No, it was a different time,’ and it just feels like everything’s changed since, I think, like, 2010.”

But for all the throwback production flourishes on What We Had (When We Had It), the song isn’t out of step with contemporary country rockers like Jason Aldean and Luke Combs, two of Setterfield’s primary influences.

Burning Gas, on the other hand, is a significant deviation, with Setterfield’s guttural screaming and the prominent use of double-kick generating a sound that’s more Knotfest than CMC Rocks. “I take a lot of influence from growing up in punk bands and heavy bands,” Setterfield says. “I’m a super fan of metal and going to those kinds of shows.”

Setterfield has described Burning Gas as his spin on “hell-raising country,” a novel subgenre popularised by US artists such as Brantley Gilbert, Lakeview and HARDY. In the local context, Setterfield sees himself as a trailblazer.

“There is an Australian country sound, but there’s no one really doing a heavy sound,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, there are rocky country acts, but if there is more of it, I would love to hear.”

Setterfield’s love of metalcore was already apparent at his live shows, particularly during the song Nothing Like Me, which featured on RISE. It was only a matter of time before these sounds appeared on one of his recordings.

“I like punchy country music, and I guess that’s why, when coming into country music, I really took to bands like Florida Georgia Line,” Setterfield says. “They always had a really punchy mix because their producer always worked with rockier bands.”

But, he adds, “I never really thought I’d bring screaming into country. That was never really on the cards.”

In this regard, HARDY had a motivating influence on Setterfield. The US musician has collaborated with everyone from Florida Georgia Line to Nickelback and Beartooth. Countrytown’s Mary Varvaris described HARDY’s 2023 single SOLD OUT as “a thrilling example of what heavy country can be.”

“[HARDY] kind of opened the door a little bit for me to go, ‘OK, I could do something that I really want to try,’” Setterfield says. Though, he’s quick to refute the idea that Burning Gas is a HARDY simulacrum. “It was always more inspired by a Parkway Drive type of thing,” he says. “Australian metalcore was where it hit me.”

Burning Gas and What We Had (When We Had It) aren’t the only novel experiments on FALL. While the country-pop song Until You will please fans of Right About Now, the track Life Ain’t So Bad incorporates a 16th note hi-hat groove that’d sound at home in a Bloc Party song.

“These songs are just me,” Setterfield says. “I love the pop country and I love the rocky country and everything in between.”

Setterfield’s stylistic see-sawing hasn’t prevented him from being embraced by the Australian country music community. He performed at this year’s CMC Rocks and has booked a headline show at Moonshiners for the 2025 Tamworth Country Music Festival. And we can expect to see plenty more of Josh Setterfield in the years ahead.

“We’re really excited [and] looking forward to the future,” he says. “We tested the waters this year with a couple of headline shows and it went really well. Mötley Crüe say they wanted to bring stadium shows to the clubs, and that’s pretty much what we’re trying to achieve. We want to give people a stadium-level show but at a venue.”

FALL by Josh Setterfield is out now. Check it out here.